By Giles Bruce, Center for Health Journalism, August 19, 2021
For some time now, early childhood experts have acknowledged that the first few years of a child’s life are critical for neurological development, and that growing up in a stressful environment can actually change the structure of the budding brain.
Now researchers are increasingly finding that the human brain is shaped — quite literally, in some instances — by external forces while it is still in utero.
“We really need to understand that development begins before birth, and parenting begins before birth,” said Catherine Monk, a professor of medical psychology in the OB-GYN and psychiatry departments of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “That can be a focus in terms of prenatal and preconception attention for parents-to-be and giving them the support that they need.”
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